OS X Mavericks pre-reviews

Some media outlets were given Macs pre-loaded with OS X Mavericks for review, and some of them have started sharing some thoughts. Since Mavericks is more of an iterative update -- especially compared to the highly visually differentiated iOS 7 -- it should come as no surprise that those who liked OS X Mountain Lion tend to like Mavericks, and tend to really like the under-the-hood improvements, and the power-user features. Here's a sampling of the thoughts shared so far.

The real shining point of Mavericks is the continued integration between OS X and iOS. Whether it’s Maps directions shared to your mobile device or passwords being synced from your iPhone to your Mac, Apple is making their entire ecosystem work for the user.

All told, Apple's promised 200 features with this release. As ever, that number includes large and minuscule additions alike. It's a list that includes some really nice additions like tabs and tagging. Again, there's nothing that's likely to lure in anyone who hasn't already made the jump from Windows. For the foreseeable future, OS X's growth will continue to be gradual. But there are certainly enough additions in here to make upgrading a no-brainer for Mac users when the final version hits in the fall. And in the meantime, hopefully Apple will reveal even more reasons to give it a try.

These are still early days for OS X 10.9, and Mavericks will likely change and shift much more before it’s released this fall. It’s clearly not going to be the total aesthetic overhaul iOS 7 is, though, and that’s okay. It’s a simple, familiar operating system, even less of a change than Mountain Lion, just with nips and tucks and a whole lot fewer sheets of weirdly torn paper.

Apple saved the revolution for iOS 7 this year. The smartphone and tablet platform was overdue a refresh, and that’s just what Apple has delivered. In contrast, the changes in OS X Mavericks feel solidly evolutionary, and while that has often come to be interpreted as a criticism, in fact it’s exactly what the Mac needs. Apple is poised between its existing users and those fresh to OS X, with iOS often the point of entry. In that sense, Mavericks’ drawing together of the ties between desktop and mobile makes perfect sense.

We'll update as more previews go live (or as we find more of them). Mavericks won't ship until the fall, so things can and will change. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the press coverage so far.

I may wait for the first update as I really regretted jumping into Lion from Snow Leopard. My often used Front Row is history and the display drivers broke a few games. I only just jumped into mountain lion and like a few of the changes but I do hope the maps app and some other features trickle down. I still wonder why Mac was ever removed from the OS X brand. If Apple released it to the PC, Steve Jobs would be rolling in his grave and the Mac apocalypse begins or if the machines we use sooner or later are no longer a "Mac"...

It's not like Windows 8.1 where it's a point update, this is in effect an all new OS. The fact that they sold Mountain Lion for very, very little is at least a good sign that Mavericks may go the same way.